> Fast for short intervals regularly, and longer fasts as they feel good to you.
You can effectively do this every day if you just eat once per day. When I was properly obese, this technique resulted in rapid weight loss. Zero exercise was required to see results, which was good at the time because the not eating part was about all I could handle.
Being in a fasted state is as close as you can get to actually reversing aging. Your body engages in a process called autophagy when nutrient-sensing pathways are down-regulated. When you are stuffing your face constantly (i.e., every ~8 hours), there is less opportunity for this mechanism to do its job.
> Note that the dosage in the mouse experiments is quite high — 0.1% of the body weight every day, meaning about 2 ounces a day for me (70 kg).
Mouse and human metabolism are very different. A better starting estimate would be 5g/day, not 57g/day. I hope people dont accidentally overdose themselves because of lack of a pharmacology background.
rscho · 45m ago
Lack of pharmacology background doesn't seem like the biggest issue when extrapolating from mouse to human.
andoando · 34m ago
I just learned this the other day, but its called allometric scaling. Definitely far off linear.
cj · 1h ago
From the conclusion paragraph:
> Your primary life extension program is diet and exercise. Choose a diet that works for you. Stay slim.
Considering heart disease is the #1 killer, doing whatever you can to not die from heart disease is the best place for most people to start.
Even in 2025, diet and exercise are still king.
cm2012 · 26m ago
Your overall mortality is actually best when you are overweight but not obese.
Life expectancy at overweight bmi > standard bmi > obese bmi > underweight bmi.
A few extra pounds when you are older helps you survive illness.
The data is really really clear and replicated on this.
derektank · 14m ago
This only really holds for older people, who have basically no ability to recover lost muscle mass after a serious illness which makes it difficult them to continue to exercise.
nahikoa · 5m ago
The correlation is unambigous. The causation is a different story, e.g. illnesses often cause weight loss.
loeg · 44m ago
And if diet alone isn't getting you to a healthy weight, the GLP-1 drugs are miraculously effective and don't have a lot of downsides aside from cost.
adamgordonbell · 1h ago
Also this:
> The best reason to take multiple life extension supplements is to hedge our bets, because we really don’t know which of them are effective in humans.
And earlier:
> Personally, I take large doses of rapamycin 2 days a week, 8 weeks per year. For personalized recommendations, you can consult your favorite life extension doc.
rscho · 2m ago
How to hedge a bet 101:
1.you bet on risky stuff by investing something of value (money, health,...)
2.since you're unsure whether your bet will be worth it, you invest some more into some other risky stuff, just to be sure.
BTW if you were wondering, of course all those proposed weird life-prolonging treatments are totally devoid of side-effects.
cactusplant7374 · 1h ago
Rapamycin modulates the immune system. I get that he's probably consulting a doctor but can you imagine taking this risk during a pandemic or even in older age? It makes me uncomfortable to play around with these very powerful drugs.
YZF · 1h ago
The dosage for longevity is supposed to be low enough that this risk is minimized. Lots of things you do modulate your immune system (including e.g. exercise). It's a risk/reward thing, every time you get into your car you're also taking a longevity risk.
I think there are some proper human trials happening but the jury is still out.
cactusplant7374 · 50m ago
> I think there are some proper human trials happening but the jury is still out.
That's exactly my point. No one really knows the risk that they are taking.
lokrian · 16m ago
People are still getting nerve damage from too much vitamin B6 in energy drinks and vitamin supplements, and that's a well known and widely taken vitamin. The idea that you can take experimental drugs your entire life at little risk is optimistic.
rscho · 39m ago
Surprisingly, many people seem to think that pushing a few random pills into a machine optimized over some million years of evolution will tune it so it works better. Go figure...
Etheryte · 22m ago
It works for the majority of modern medicine, so it's not all that black and white.
rscho · 12m ago
Yes, although even for modern medicine curative and preventative strategies are very distinct. Sure, they'll give you pills to compensate for a problem you already have. But there are few meds that protect you against stuff you'll maybe catch in the future. Vaccines and antibiotics are obvious examples, but I'm not aware of many others. The rest of preventative strategies overwhelmingly consists in correcting deficits or excesses (calories, vitamins, sleep, exercise etc.)
jordanb · 1h ago
These roads people go down always arrive at eating collidal silver...
MarcelOlsz · 1h ago
Get with the times, methylene blue is the new it girl.
untrust · 21m ago
And sleep
cyb0rg1 · 23m ago
Vodka Red Bull you unfunny tech shits. And festivals. Better than your lab supplements.
derektank · 18m ago
Some of us don't get invited to those kinds of parties
rscho · 22m ago
You've got horrible taste in cocktails.
standardUser · 2m ago
Vodka Red Bull is not a cocktail it is a drug.
rscho · 31s ago
This man's got horrible taste in drugs.
Animats · 1h ago
Winner, "Ascorbic". Do they mean Vitamin C?
YZF · 1h ago
The text says yes. Also the text says other studies supposedly shown decrease in lifespan in humans: "but the conclusion of this study was that supplementation with vitamin C depressed lifespan, probably by inhibiting production of the body’s native antioxidants, including glutathione and SOD=superoxide dismutase."
Truth be told, none of either prescription or OTC stuff has any solid research backing it. Some people, especially on HN are obsessed with living long and are always prompt to try the weirdest experimental stuff. Reasonable people should remember what the COVID period was on this website, and act accordingly...
frodo8sam · 52m ago
Melatonin is just for jetlag/otherwise shifted sleeping schedule, are people using it as an anti aging drug?
catigula · 42m ago
A lot of people in the comments are talking about the "problem" of death and approaches to take, but really, the only thing you can do is philosophically make your peace. Anything else at this point is yelling into infinity.
bluGill · 34m ago
Realistically you can maybe get another couple year from what I can tell. Is it worth it?
I'd focus more on qulalitiy of your life. not everyone will die of something all these can help with, the obese person I used to know enjoyed eating - and we can now say in hindsight that diet changes would not have helped him live longer.
You can effectively do this every day if you just eat once per day. When I was properly obese, this technique resulted in rapid weight loss. Zero exercise was required to see results, which was good at the time because the not eating part was about all I could handle.
Being in a fasted state is as close as you can get to actually reversing aging. Your body engages in a process called autophagy when nutrient-sensing pathways are down-regulated. When you are stuffing your face constantly (i.e., every ~8 hours), there is less opportunity for this mechanism to do its job.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autophagy
> Note that the dosage in the mouse experiments is quite high — 0.1% of the body weight every day, meaning about 2 ounces a day for me (70 kg).
Mouse and human metabolism are very different. A better starting estimate would be 5g/day, not 57g/day. I hope people dont accidentally overdose themselves because of lack of a pharmacology background.
> Your primary life extension program is diet and exercise. Choose a diet that works for you. Stay slim.
Considering heart disease is the #1 killer, doing whatever you can to not die from heart disease is the best place for most people to start.
Even in 2025, diet and exercise are still king.
Life expectancy at overweight bmi > standard bmi > obese bmi > underweight bmi.
A few extra pounds when you are older helps you survive illness.
The data is really really clear and replicated on this.
> The best reason to take multiple life extension supplements is to hedge our bets, because we really don’t know which of them are effective in humans.
And earlier:
> Personally, I take large doses of rapamycin 2 days a week, 8 weeks per year. For personalized recommendations, you can consult your favorite life extension doc.
1.you bet on risky stuff by investing something of value (money, health,...)
2.since you're unsure whether your bet will be worth it, you invest some more into some other risky stuff, just to be sure.
BTW if you were wondering, of course all those proposed weird life-prolonging treatments are totally devoid of side-effects.
I think there are some proper human trials happening but the jury is still out.
That's exactly my point. No one really knows the risk that they are taking.
He has no conflicts of interests, works for the NIA, and he's quite open to trying other compounds, having put out the call for suggestions.
I'd focus more on qulalitiy of your life. not everyone will die of something all these can help with, the obese person I used to know enjoyed eating - and we can now say in hindsight that diet changes would not have helped him live longer.